- Binis who support Oshiomhole are betra
- yers’‘No, Oyegun not competent as chairman’
Despite an alleged decision to back out from his rerun ambition, the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Chief John Oyegun, is believed to have hibernated only to operate from the shadows against some forces that worked against his continuity as the chairman of the party.
Already, Oyegun, following the advice of people close to President Muhammadu Buhari that he should not move against the choice of the President, has reportedly decided to back out of the party’s chairmanship race.
APC has slated the election of its new national officers for June. The National Executive Committee of the party had earlier fixed the convention for May 14, but the date was shifted indefinitely even as the ward, local government and state congresses were rescheduled for May 5, 12 and 19, respectively.
With the development, it was gathered that despite the fact that Oyegun was promised a better place if the president eventually comes back to the office for a second term, his loyalists at both the state and national levels have promised to rock the boat against Adams Oshiomhole, who, from all indications, is the APC chairman in-waiting.
Oshiomhole is believed to have been sponsored by former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a situation that arose from the political feud between Tinubu and Oyegun.
Sources from Edo State said loyalists of Oyegun in the state chapter of the party had already begun a silent war with Oshiomhole’s supporters.
Some of them, according to information, have promised to make the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki’s government uncomfortable, as they believe “the same political blood runs in the veins of Obaseki and Oshiomhole.”
Meanwhile, political pundits believe that the party leadership needs to move in to bury the misunderstanding between the party’s national chairman and Tinubu.
According to them, failure to amend the party’s cracked wall in this area will create a loophole ahead of the coming general election in 2019.
It was also gathered from a source, who didn’t want his name mentioned, that loyalists of Oyegun among the governors, despite their support for the President on Oshiomhole, have promised Oyegun to help him pay Tinubu back in his own coin.
“There is more to what people see and write about the situation. Let Oshiomhole become the party chairman and witness another facet of conflict in the party. Of course, Oyegun has stepped down, but his people are ready to fight for him. His loyalist governors and other people are ready to fight back,” a party source disclosed.
You saw what happened in Edo Government House, where they claimed to have adopted Oshiomhole for the position of National Chairman of the party and how four out of the six state chairmen walked out?
OSHIOMHOLE’S CRITIC KICKS
Speaking on the development, one of the supporters of the national chairman of APC from Edo State, Comrade Godwin Erhahon, said the leadership of the party was making a grave error in adopting Oshiomhole as their candidate.
Erhahon, a former state chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, said he was “ humiliated and coerced to tender unreserved apologies, and I was relieved of my job when in 2015, I raised the alarm over a plot by Oshiomhole to displace Chief Oyegun.
“By whatever standard, Oshiomhole can never match Chief Oyegun. Oyegun graduated in 1963 from the University of Ibadan; he was governor of this state in 1992 till Abacha’s coup removed him, and he is a retired Federal permanent secretary.
“Majority of the Binins have become so cheap; they have become such irresponsible betrayers, even to the (Benin) kingdom. They only talk about Benin when it favours their interests. A Benin man is being betrayed and you are happy because you have collected bribe.
“Even, the Oba of Benin needs to pray to God to redirect the minds of the Binins so that they can become more patriotic and righteous.”
A visibly angry Erhahon, against the drumbeats of support for Oshiomhole’s candidature, equally lambasted the state party chairman, Barr. Anslem Ojezua, for supporting Oshiomole against Oyegun.
“I have long assessed Ojezua. I don’t think he is even worth my assessment any longer. It is a big shame that as a Binin, his adoption of Oshiomhole has plunged him into political suicide,” he chided.
But when Oyegun got there as National Chairman, he was not putting the party together the way I expected and because I don’t hide my feelings, I started attacking him. It does not mean I don’t respect him, but he has tried his best but we need a change
OYEGUN’LL STILL RETURN, SAYS AIDE
Meanwhile, media aide to Oyegun, Sunny Idahagbon, has described the purported endorsement of Oshiomhole by the South-South APC caucus in Edo State Government House as “a farce, a charade and a fraud.
“Oyegun is cruising to victory, he is winning; he is going to beat his closest rival with over 90 per cent votes on that day, where the boys will be separated from the men. Politics is not about propaganda; it’s about people’s lives and destiny.
“ You saw what happened in Edo Government House, where they claimed to have adopted Oshiomhole for the position of National Chairman of the party and how four out of the six state chairmen walked out?
“How can 1/2 be superior to 1/4, is that possible? People should pay less attention to pretenders, but focus more on the contenders. The battle for APC chairmanship position is as clear as the difference between day and night.
“There is no endorsement anywhere; what they had in Edo was a group of people trying to lay claim to what they don’t have.”
On the lingering feud between Tinubu and the APC National Chairman, Idahagbon posited, “Empirical facts have shown that the vast majority of the party leadership class, delegates in Nigeria and abroad are committed to the ever purposeful leadership of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.”
Idahagbon, who extolled the qualities of the embattled APC National Chairman, also said, “With kindness, humility, integrity and intellectual prowess, Oyegun has been able to preserve the sanctity and unity of the ruling party, whose formation and strong alliance were a child of necessity at that time.
‘OSHIOMHOLE, FAR BETTER THAN OYEGUN’
But a chieftain of the APC in Edo State, who is Oshiomhole’s die-hard supporter, Chief Charles Idahosa, differed.
He condemned various moves by supporters of Oyegun in the state, who have been castigating Oshiomhole on his aspiration, describing them as idle people.
He claimed that Oyegun had failed and had no experience, unlike Oshiomhole, saying that performance, not ethnicity or tribe, should be the requirement for party leadership.
“While I was abroad, I was reading people saying Oshiomhole wants to forcefully take the job of a Benin man. Those people are ignorant because they don’t even know how Oyegun became chairman.
“What has ethnicity got to do with the national chairmanship of the APC? Oshiomhole is an Edo man, just like Oyegun. Long before now, I was one of the party leaders who opposed Odigie-Oyegun – I am a Benin man like Oyegun – because the party was not growing well under him.
“I felt Oyegun did not do what he was supposed to do to keep the party together. So, this has nothing to do with tribe. If it is ethnicity, I will be the first to support Oyegun.
“In 2014, Oshiomhole and I played a very serious role to ensure the emergence of Oyegun; but a lot of people do not know that. Chief Tom Ikimi was already coasting to victory as the unopposed candidate from Edo State.
“But I made the State Working Committee to reopen the agenda when we all agreed on Tom Ikimi and it was Oshiomhole that called me to say ‘please, move the motion at the State Working Committee level; we want Oyegun. Please, Charles, do it for me, we want Oyegun, do it for me.’ And I moved the motion which changed the state’s earlier support for Chief Ikimi, in favour of Oyegun.
“Oshiomhole is from Edo North, but why did he not say because Oyegun is from Benin, so he would not support him?
“But when Oyegun got there as National Chairman, he was not putting the party together the way I expected and because I don’t hide my feelings, I started attacking him. It does not mean I don’t respect him, but he has tried his best but we need a change.”
He also blamed Oyegun for what he described as lack of proper coordination in the National Assembly.
Idahosa said, “How can we be the ruling party and we are not in control of the National Assembly? The National Assembly is acting as the opposition leader Number One to the APC. That does not mean Oyegun is a bad man. He is a gentleman, but I think he found himself in a terrain that is new to him. He was a civil servant, and he really does not know much about the intrigues in politics.
“You cannot give what you don´t have. So we need that change. That is why I said Oshiomhole will do better and bring the party together, because he knows the intricacies of politics and he will deliver.
“I do not have any fear as regards whether Oshiomhole will perform or not; he will, because he is a team player and he will not allow his party to be destroyed, because he particularly suffered under the PDP and will never allow the PDP to defeat the APC.”
